Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 10, 1991 TAG: 9103080141
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Diane MacEachern
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In response to a tip to let water faucets run for at least three minutes to flush lead out of tap water, many people wrote mentioning that water conserva tion is a priority in much of the country. The Marin Municipal Water District in Corte Madera, Calif., suggests "that people save water from the faucet in a bucket and reuse it for flushing toilets, watering plants or other uses."
Regarding the difficulty of recycling telephone books, Natalie Roy, recycling coordinator for Takoma Park, Md., reported on the special recycling drives in her city that collect telephone books as well as magazines, junk mail and other paperboard products. The city then ships the material to a mill in Baltimore that recycles the mixed paper into new paperboard products such as cereal and pizza boxes.
Wrote J. Wood of Falls Church, regarding protecting kids from environmental hazards: "You left out one very important household hazard: smoke from tobacco products." The reader cited a recent New England Journal of Medicine report noting that children whose parents smoke are more likely to suffer respiratory tract infections and lung cancer.
G. Belin of Petaluma, Calif., sent me a newspaper cartoon lampooning the oil industry. She comments: "When I moved to Miami in 1945, my home and most homes and apartment buildings had solar panels on the roof which worked quite well for supplying hot water. An electric auxiliary `booster' could be used on cloudy days. Why is it that - 45 years later - the use of solar energy seems to be such a new and innovative idea? Why is solar not used at least in sunny areas?"
An East Coast reader suggests: return wire hangers to the dry cleaner; return plastic plant containers to your garden store or give them to vendors at local farmers' markets; publicize the existence and location of community recycling facilities, especially in areas that do not as yet offer curbside pick-up pro-grams.
Added K. Belk of Monroe, N.C., "I cut down used envelopes and Christmas cards to note size and use for grocery lists and memos. The sturdy bags out of cereal boxes I rinse out and use to cover left-over cornbread. I use [empty] large glass mayonnaise jars for storing grits, cornmeal, rice and coffee."
Q. Curbside recycling isn't an option in our apartment building. How can we start a recycling program?
A. Work with other interested tenants to identify a recycling company that will pick up glass, cans, newspapers and other kinds of paper from your building. For suggestions, contact your city's garbage collection agency or the local recycling office, or look in the telephone directory under "recycling."
Get the support of the building manager, who may be particularly interested if the program will actually save the building money in reduced trash-hauling costs.
Identify a place in the building to store recyclables until pick up. In addition to the usual garbage drop-offs, consider utility and laundry areas or accessible places where bicycles, luggage and other big items are stored.
Encourage all tenants to participate. Before the program starts, send around a memo providing simple recycling guidelines and information. From time to time, provide a status report on the program (how much waste has been reduced, how many tenants participate). Perhaps you can work with the building manager to spend money that's been saved on garbage disposal on improvements for the building.
The Environmental Action Coalition (EAC) runs an apartment building newspaper-recycling program for the city of New York. EAC explains why recycling is important to the building's management, tenant organization or co-op board of directors and distributes literature explaining why recycling newspapers helps protect the building's garbage incinerators and saves money at the same time. Then it helps the building staff set up on-site recycling. The coalition also coordinates an agreement between the building and a private paper hauler who collects the paper and takes it to a recycling facility.
For more information, contact the Environmental Action Coalition at 625 Broadway, 2nd floor, New York, N.Y. 10012.
You might also want to get a copy of "Strength in Numbers: Recycling in Multi-Family Housing," a 10-minute video you can rent for $16 from the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, 300 Mendham Rd., Route 24, Box 157, Mendham, N.J. 07945.
Send questions about the environment to Tips for Planet Earth, c/ Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071-9200. Questions of general interest will be answered in the column; individual answers cannot be provided. Washington Post Writers Group
by CNB